Day 203

I am so glad I stayed up last night and waited for the stars to come out. There were so many. I had fun using my phone app to see certain constellations. I saw 3 shooting stars. I only made one wish though. I stayed up pretty late and then finally went in my tent to go to sleep. 
I woke up today and was feeling sluggish. I was 28 miles from the next town. I knew if I busted my ass that I could make it. From the way I was feeling, I knew I’d be coming up short. I didn’t really care. I made my goal for the day to be 20 miles and then I’d have an easy day tomorrow. I had 2 mountains to go over also. So I knew that it would be foolish to push myself to make it all the way.
I got rolling at what I thought was a really late start at 8:30. It looked like it was going to be a nice day. I walked through the valley and saw some antelope out eating breakfast. They were looking at and trying to decide whether to run away or not. That’s what I thought anyways. 
I went up the first mountain which wasn’t supposed to be so bad but it was. it was kicking my butt. I was just feeling lazy today. A couple of nice guys in a red truck pulled up and talked for a couple of minutes. I had a feeling that they would be the only people all day that would stop for me. I was right. 
I reached the top of pancake pass. It was so freaking beautiful! I couldn’t believe it. The valley between this mountain and the next one was long and the road was straight. You could see for miles and miles. With mountains all around. Just stunning. 
I was feeling pooped by the time I hit about 12 miles. I knew that I needed to keep pushing though. It would make tomorrow easier. The winds are forecasted to be over 30 mph tomorrow and I’d like to avoid all that if possible. That was my motivation to keep going up the second mountain. 
I saw a large group of wild horses. I stopped to take pictures and almost got hit by a car. People are assholes. They didn’t hit me though. So I kept going. Screw em. I was way happier than they were, obviously. 
I pushed and pushed and made it to the 20 mile point. Anything from here would be bonus. I didn’t care about bonus though. I was ready to stop. I walked another couple of miles uphill looking for a good spot to camp.  I finally found a pulloff that would work just fine. 
There was a white van there. I walked over to say hello and announce my presence and to see if they didn’t mind if I camped there. Keith had a plateful of food made for me as I walked around the other side of the van. I grabbed my little stool and we ate and talked about travel stories and how corrupt our government is. My kind of conversation. He had gone on a cross country motorcycle adventure with a friend when he was a teenager. He says it changed him forever. 
It was great to have someone to hang out with while setting up my camp. He had a cool set up in his van. Everything he needed was built into the van. A cool way to travel. He still had miles to make and he went his way while I stayed right there. I finished setting up and that was that. I’ve been laying down ever since. The laziest person to ever walk 20 something miles in a day…